NEWS

Reviews

"We’ve all witnessed UKIP’s rise during the recent elections in Britain, and Goodison’s powerful movie appropriately looks at the hardship endured by young adult asylum seekers. The film intimately portrays the difficulties suffered by the thousands of asylum seekers throughout the country, giving a voice to those who are purely searching for a better life in Britain.

Leave to Remain is a stylish and modern take on a serious issue currently at the forefront of British politics and culture."

A Bafta-winning filmmaker is to tackle the little-known issue of teenage asylum seekers who arrive in Britain alone in a new film with real refugees playing leading roles and working on the crew.

Leave to Remain stars Toby Jones, who was recently named best actor at the Evening Standard Film Awards, alongside first timers including Massieh Zarrien who came to the UK from Afghanistan when he was eight-years-old. It emerged today that the film, which is in post production, will be scored by last year’s Mercury Award winning band Alt-J.

Bruce Goodison, who won a TV Bafta this year for Our War, has just finished filming Leave to Remain which is based on the real experiences of young asylum seekers he met after becoming involved with a community centre.

"Bruce Goodison's feature debut, the good-natured Leave to Remain (2013), imbues the meticulous rigour of a documentary with the conventional methodology of a narrative drama to create an unusual deviation on the coming-of-age tale. A film about children thrust into adulthood thanks to their status as asylum seekers, Goodison looks to give a voice to the thousands of young refugees currently fighting their case in the courtrooms of the United Kingdom."

"this is a very watchable, frequently powerful film shot through with a pervasive, troubling sense of lives caught in the balance – between the horrors of home and the relative calm of London, between the joy of escape and the threat of repatriation, between ‘foreign-ness’ and ‘Englishness’."

"[Toby Jones is] back in cinemas this week with Leave To Remain, a touching drama about an Afghan boy's struggle to fit in when he arrives in the UK, with Jones playing the kind-hearted teacher who runs the local refuge centre"

"It was a story just waiting to be told. In truth it's staggering it's taken so long. But it is the tenacity of one man, and the courage, trust and faith of a small band of displaced young people that has seen the epic story realised on screen."

"The film takes a fearless look at the ‘controversial’ issue of immigration, focusing on the characters and what they’ve been subjected to, and then contrasting those disturbing scenes with the delight of life in London. Some of the best moments are when Goodison simply captures the characters sitting down, deep in thought, making for some incredibly powerful visuals.

Goodison delivers a meaningful and poignant story. That makes Leave to Remain well worth checking out. Soundtrack buffs will also find additional enjoyment in the score, from Mercury Music Prize-winners Alt-J."

Alt J: "Leave to Remain [is] a film that deserve[s] as wide an audience as possible... The finished film is beautifully made, and balances its important message with a great cast of characters and an engrossing story. We are proud to have been a part of it."

"Bruce Goodison’s film is an awareness-raising journalistic work, drawing attention to the kind of ordeals that cause people to flee to Britain and encouraging us to put ourselves in these new arrivals’ shoes."

"There is a constant of care that runs through this film that strangely moved me, its genuineness is its strength, and ultimately its primary concern is in the humanity and regardless of the politics and we should not forget that these are children."

"If you watch one film this week, make it Leave to Remain"

"So, is it worth seeing? Oh for sure. If only to see how terrifying it must be for someone so young with minimal English to arrive in this country. ... Listening to the things the teenagers describe the things they witnessed in their own countries by such tender ages is enough to make you take a long hard look at your own life and be grateful for everything you have."

LEAVE TO REMAIN ANNOUNCED ON INDIE WIRE

"Toby Jones has joined the cast of Bruce Goodison's "Leave to Remain," a coming-of-age story centering on a group of teenagers who have escaped their respective countries and banded together in a hidden underworld of London. Principal photography is underway."

FILM SELECTED BY FILM LONDON FOR AUDIENCE ON DEMAND

INTERVIEW WITH THE DIRECTOR IN TELEVISUAL

"Director Bruce Goodison trained young asylum seekers to star in a fact-based low-budget drama feature that tells the story of parentless teenagers fleeing their home countries and hoping to make a new life in the UK."